


The Mystery Cat of the Mystery Shack

by Infinityzero4567, LumianaKatenke



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Bill and Dipper need a hug, Bill turns into a cat, Dipper loves his cat, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-04-14 14:33:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4568127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinityzero4567/pseuds/Infinityzero4567, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LumianaKatenke/pseuds/LumianaKatenke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When a cat gives you powers kid, you make 'magical lemonade." </p>
<p>-Bill Cipher the, wait-what?! </p>
<p>...or when Bill becomes a cat, Dipper gets magical powers, Mabel is still, well Mabel, and magic, silliness, friendship, and love are the things that become precious to Dipper...and also the things he has to fight for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See the end for chapter notes!!!

Dipper and Mabel were 16 when it all happened.

Every summer, Mabel and Dipper would visit their Grunkle Stan on their break from school. They would climb off the rickety old antique minibus and spend their days helping out conning gullible tourists and discovering fascinating new mysteries. It was a cycle that never stuttered, never stopped…

…Until now, that is.

After more than enough nagging from Grunkle Stan for one day, (who wanted them by the shack for extra help to ‘shake off the extra weight in the tourists pockets,’ whatever that means) Mabel and Dipper were finally able to take a evening stroll into the mysterious town of Gravity Falls. They decided during their walk that they would pick up groceries for the week and a sweet treat for the journey home.

As they walked, Dipper tuned out his his sisters loud, obnoxious humming. He didn't mind her off tuned singing, nor did he mind the vacant street’s solemn song of silence. He did, however, mind the weird feelings crawling up his spine, spinning and shaking his core endlessly.

“Mabel…?” Dipper asked nervously.

Mabel continued to hum, but spared an idle glance her brother’s way.

“What’s up, bro-bro?”

There's a short silence before Dipper continues.

“Do you-uh… do you get the feeling that we're being...watched?”

Mabel blinks, opens her mouth and closes before she snorts.

“Dipper,” Mabel rolls her eyes, nudging her brother with her elbow. “Relax! You're being paranoid! We've been roaming these streets since like forever and you're feeling weird _now_?”

Dipper frowns at her dismissive behavior. “I guess...I guess you're right…” The feeling suddenly pierced him, the hit so severely and strongly that he almost stumbles and falls “Mabel, I really don’t think I'm just being paranoid! I really think that-!”

Mabel turns her head. She suddenly stops walking. “I believe you, bro-bro!” Dipper blinks. He stops to give his twin a surprised, scandalous look.

“You do? Wait, you do?!” Mabel nods. She inches more towards the nearest shops window and waves her brother off.

“Yeah! Like when you see a hot guy working the cashier at the best soap and shampoo store in town!”

“Mabel…”

“Yes, Dipper?”

“There's only one soap and shampoo store-!”

“Not the point, bro-bro.” She grips Dippers shoulders and shoots him a bright smile. “You just have that feeling, you know? And like a wise man once-.”

“-Never-.”

“-Would say, you follow that feeling. And so, I shall.”

Dippers eyes widen when his sister salutes, swings the shop’s doors open, and steps inside.

“Wait, Mabel-!” The door shuts behind her. He sighs and grumbles when he hears his sisters loud giggle and the shampoo cashier’s bad attempts at flirting.

“Guess I'm just going to sit and wait...again.”

Dipper huffs in annoyance and sulkily shuffles his way to the nearest bench. He sighs and slouches in his seat. With each quiet, lazy tap of his fingers, he looks up at the evening sky and begins to count the stars. It's been a habit of his since his first summer in Gravity. With this habit, a thought, wonder was created within his mind, a wonders if there would ever be a time where he could shine as beautiful and as bright as the distant suns reflecting in his chocolate eyes.

“Maybe in a cute girl’s eyes or something…” he scoffs at his own words. “Like I could be seen like that in anyone's eyes. Probably in my dreams, at best… Sure would be nice though…”

Dipper extends his arm to the sky. With his hand, he covers half the moon and clenches his hand into a fist. It was as if, at that moment, he was destroying the beautiful light that illuminated his arm, his body, and his soul into dust.

“What am I doing?” Dipper clicks his tongue and slaps himself with his wandering hand. He raises his arms to stretch, but he's interrupted by the creeping feeling of lingering eyes. He gasps and turns his head, looking around timidly for the source with his heart hammering in his chest. Because of the fear lingering in his veins, a slow and shallow ache forms within him. He shakily breathes, reaches for his chest and clenches his shirt. Through it all, his eyes glisten, his lungs burn, and his hand tingles.

“And stay out, you pesky vermin!” A loud shout and bang wakes Dipper up from the confusion and pain. He looks up and watches a burly, bald, anger man open his establishments back door, toss a small furry bundle onto the street, and leave with a loud bang and a line of curse words.

Dipper stares at the tiny bundle in the street. He tilts his head and watches a small, fluffy, dirty ear twitch. He maneuvers his glance from the cat to the upcoming car in the street and shrieks.

“Holy-! Wait a-! Hold on, I gotcha, I gotcha!”

Before the vehicle could run over the small, poor furry bundle, Dipper jumps into the middle of the road. He opens his arms and waves for the car to stop. With a sudden jolt and screech, the car freezes, and so did Dipper’s last nerves.

The driver of the vehicle steps out. He strides over to the kid. He looks annoyed, surprised, and tired.

“Kid-Dipper?!”

Now that Dipper can see his face, the man, or Deputy Durland, cocks his hip and looks down at the boy with unamusement.

“Now, what are you doing standing in the middle of the road?! You could have been hit, or even worse, killed-!”

“A cat…?” Deputy Durland frowns as Dipper picks up and cradles a small dark bundle in his arms.

“A what? Dipper, what are you-?”

“It's a cat!” Dipper points to the small twitching animal in his arms. “It's a cat, look, see?! Wait a minute! Some guy just threw out this little guy?! What a jerk!”

“A cat?” The Deputy frowns. “Wait, someone did what?!”

“Ah, never mind that!” Dipper takes his finger and gentle runs it up and down the cat's dirty back. He waits patiently for the little feline to rise, yawn, and open a big gold eye.

“Woah…” Dipper stares at the cat, and the cat stares at Dipper. Dipper opens his mouth to speak, but his chest tightens again, and his hand burns.

“O-ouch!” He flinches back, and when he stares into the cat's eye again, he doesn't see gold, but he sees specks as picturesque and never ending as tears.

“Are you okay, bro-bro? You almost bumped into me there!” From behind Dipper, Mabel peers from over his broad shoulders. She gasps at the small animal in his arms and squeals. For a minute, Dipper wonders more about how she got behind him without a sound then the dust sprinkled in the tiny animal’s eyes. 

“It's a kitty!” She sings. “It's a kitty!” How cute! Look at the little thing! It's cute, right?!” Dipper nods. He watches as the small ears move and twitch with its tails movements. A gasp leaves his lips when the small cat suddenly hides its tiny head in his shoulder and loudly purr.

“Well, would you look at that!” Deputy Durland laughs. “I think the little guy likes you!”

“Oh gee..” Dipper nervously laughed. “I guess you're right.”

Mabel smiled. “It doesn't seem to have a collar right?”

Dipper looks around the cat's neck. He searches and finds no collar, no identification of who the cat is or who he belonged to, so he shakes his head.

“So, no owner then?”

“Apparent not.” The Deputy shakes his head. “It would be too sad to just force this poor thing into a shelter after such an event. It needs as much love as it can get right now, that's for sure.” Mabel grins. Dipper shivers

He hates that grin.

“Mabel, no.”

Mabel pouts. “But Dipper, he needs wove~!”

Dipper cringes. “Mabel, stop.”

“Wove!”

“Mabel…”

“Wove~!”

“ _Mabel_!”

Mabel pouts. “...but…”

Dipper rolls his eyes. “But _nothing_! What's Grunkle Stan gonna say when we come home with a cat! A _cat_ Mabel!”

Mabel waves her hand. “He's not gonna complain, don't worry! If he really was going to, Waddles would so not be living with us, that I'll tell you!”

Dipper opens his mouth, grits his teeth, and sighs,

“...you really aren't going to stop bugging me if I say no, right?”

Both Mabel and Deputy Durland shake their heads. “Nope!”

Dipper looks down at his hands, slaps his face with both of them, and slowly runs his hands down his face. He reminds himself that he can't inflict nor teach everyone common sense and that the universe hates his entire existence.

“...if Grunkle Stan says yes…”

“Yay!”

Dipper holds onto some hope. “I hope he doesn't say yes…”

                                                            …

“...he completely said yes…”

Dipper blinks at the cold wooden boards. He hears his sister dancing around, holding the cat in her small hands and nuzzling it's soft fur. The small car purrs and peeks over Mabel’s shoulder. It looks at Dipper as if to mock him, laugh at him silently.

Dipper remembers moments before where he is now. He recalls stepping inside the small house and hustling over to his Grunkle Stan’s side. Dipper watched him comfortably sit by the television set with a bottle of coke in one hand and a bag of potato chips in another with confidence. He asks him about the cat, expecting one answer. He, however, didn't expect him to say “it can stay...I mean, Deputy there would give me hell if I refused to let ‘em in. Plus, it was cheaper than groceries, although I would have prefer the grocery, but I won't complain too much this time. Think of this as a thanks for helping me earlier today.”

“But,” Dipper stutters, “b-but Grunkle Stan-?”

“No buts! Go take care of the little rascal before it poops on my carpet!” Grunkle Stan slouches in the couch and continues to watch the show illuminating the television's screen. Dipper stands with his mouth open. Even as his sister walks in the room with the silently laughing cat, he doesn't move, not one step. 

“This is insane.” He mutters and pulls his hair. “This is frickin insane!”

Mabel pets the cat with a small smirk. “So, I guess he did say yes, huh…?”

“Mabel?”

“Bro-Bro?”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too, bro-bro!”

“Urgh,” Dipper pinches his nose. “I hope you're at least going to take care of it by yourself.”

“Well,” Mabel looks up and grins. “I forgot I have something to do and little cutie here needs a bath...”

“So?” Dipper frowns. “What does that have to do with-oh no you don't!”

“But Dip-dot,” Mabel whines. “It's only a bath.”

“This is your pet, not mine. I want nothing to do with this! Besides, it isn't that dirty…”

Dipper examines the cat. He notices the small patches of white in the dark and peeling dirt covering the cat’s fur. He winces when dark specks begin to drop from the cat’s fur and onto the ground.

“Okay, I'm mistaken about the dirty part, but it's still your cat!”

Mabel smirks. “You're the one who found it!” Dipper hates her cheeky smile. “So therefore, it is yours as well.”

Dipper wants to retort that she's the one who wanted to keep it. He wants to retort that they could have given it to another family or someone actually willing to take care of it and shower it with love. But then, Dipper’s eyes meet the small cat’s, and he suddenly knows that he could never do that.

“Fine,” Dipper sighs, grabs the cat from Mabel’s arms, and trudges up the stairs. Mabel looks at her dirty empty hands, blinks, and swerves her head towards her brother.

“Wait, so you're going to…? But you were completely against it…? Huh?” Dipper turns his head.

“I'm just going to wash him is all,” he trudged the rest of the way with a loud grumble. “That's all…”

When he gets to the bathroom, he grabs a towel from the closet, and immediately fills water into the white porcelain tub. The cat fidgets in his arm. It snuggles as close as it can get to Dipper's chest and as far away as it can get from the water.

“Not so high and mighty, now are we big guy?” The cat surprisingly rolls its eyes.

Dipper reaches to the other side of the tub and grabs a bottle of shampoo. He squirts some in his palm and runs it through the dirty cat's skin. He waits until most of the black dirt falls and chips off before he slowly puts the squirming cat in the tub.

The cat meows and scratches at him.

On second thought, tries to.

“Look man,” he stops lifting the cat into the tub’s water and sighs, “we've both had a rough day. I just wanna go to bed, but you need a bath first. You're dirty.”

Dipper comes close to the cat, sniffs, and quickly backs away. “And you stink.”

The cat almost looks offended by the remark before it huffs, wiggles out of Dipper’s soapy grip, and drops itself into the tub.

“Did you just-?” Dipper watches the cat swim around endlessly with a bored expression on its face. “Did you just go in willing? And- _puh_ -! What are you doing? You look _ridiculous_ -!”

A large splash of water in his face shuts him up.

“Let's get this over with,” Dipper grabs the hissing cat and begins to wash the dirt off his fur. “I have an appointment with a book and then my bed...on second thought, the bed part is coming first tonight. You’ve officially completely worn me out, little guy.”

The cat wiggles its whiskers and gives him an almost amused look as a response. Dipper rolls his eyes and continues to watch the cat. He starts to notices the white fur more, and the large sparkling right eye observing its surroundings. Dipper is almost left speechless at how beautiful the cat is, all clean and untouched, almost like a small angel drenched with the tears of sinners.

“Woah, you're a pretty-!” The cat hisses again. Dipper blinks for his thoughts, and then once more in understanding. “-handsome, sorry, kitty” the cat proudly lifts his head. Dipper almost laughs at the cat's attitude.

“You're not like most cats, are you?” The cat looks over at him. Dipper washes any dirt remaining on the cat and his hands before he meets the feline’s eye. The gold reminds him of a bright flames dancing, and the blue reminds him of the nights stars twinkling in the sky. It's almost magic, how the blue mixes with the gold in sorrowful beauty. It almost reminds him of some of the stories he's read. One of his favorite tales to read was about the bright, bold, confident sun falling in love with the calm, compassionate, gentle moon.

Suddenly Dipper’s hands, arms, and cheeks burn. He slowly crept his hand towards the small cat and holds its head with both of his hands.

“Do I-do I know you?” He asks. The cat leans its paws onto the tub’s edge with its eye wide.

Silence fills the room.

“What am I thinking?” Dipper shakes his head. He takes the towel, throws it over his shoulder, lifts up the cat, and begins drying the dripping wet animal. “You're just a cat.”

The cat meows.  
                                                           ...  
That night, Dipper heads off to sleep early with the cat jumping on the edge of his bed. Dipper lifts up the bed spread and covers his body with the warm sheets. He peers up and spots the cat staring at him. He frowns and looks the other way.

“Don't you wanna go to Mabel’s room?” The cat shakes his head. Dipper sighs.

“Well, okay...I'm off to bed, then.” He watches the cat surprisingly nod its head, curl in a ball, and blink at him through its fetal position. Dipper silently grips his blankets and watches the cat, well, _watch_ him…

“This is so weird,” Dipper sighs. “We’re both tired from tonight, aren't we?”

The cat meows in agreement.

Dipper snorts. “Well, get some sleep little guy.”

Dipper watches the cat doze off, snap its eyes open, and doze off again. Dipper laughs.

“Good night.” The cat finally closes his eyes.

Dipper reaches for his lamp and turns the knob.

The light shuts off.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's Infinity! 
> 
> I apologize for being so late on this aha, but I'm surely getting there! This is the rewrite of chapter one! Some other chapters may be rewritten in order to fit the new story line! Thank you for your patience and I wish you all had a Happy New Year!!! Let's have an awesome year together! 
> 
> Thank ya! Love ya forever!


	2. Chapter 2

Dipper slowly opens his eyes.

The sunlight bleeds from his window and into his face. A picture is suddenly painted, a picture of a boy before his tainting, when he young and innocent, pure and unadulterated.

His brown eyes sparkle with the light casted upon him. Dipper sits up, rubs his eyes, and yawns. He stretches until he hears his bones crack and his stiff limbs relax to mush. As he drops his hands from above his head, he tiredly looks around. In the silence, he absorbs his room filled with papers, books and knick-knacks. In the silence, he looks up and breathes away his tiredness and the loneliness he feels when he grips the bed sheets. In the silence, he thinks, ponders about how would it feel to have someone by his side in his cold, empty bed…

Soft snoring interrupts his train of thought. Dipper frowns and looks around for the source. He blinks at the closeness of the noise, and at a sudden vibrations on his chest.

Dipper sweats. He nervously lifts up his blankets with his shaking hands and stares at the small white bundle of fur sleeping on his abdomen in surprise. He watches the furry animal purr and snore quietly. From time to time, Dipper catches the way the small cat’s right ear twitches and the way its tail sways from side to side in his slumber. He smiles and bends low enough to pet the animals soft fur. For a moment, he almost thinks the cat is actually kind of cute.

The white feline turns and smacks Dipper's face with its tail.

...only for a moment….

“Wake up, little guy.” The cat stirs, but it doesn't arise. Dipper looks up and rolls his eyes. “I need to get up, and you're kinda heavy.”

The cat opens its goldish blue eye, scuffs, and continues to snooze on Dipper.

Dipper’s eye begins to twitch. “So, you wanna play it like that, huh?” He slips out of bed and watches the cat fall from his chest and onto the floor with a loud thump! Dipper walks away and rolls his eyes at the cat's loud hissing.

“Not my fault you chose there to sleep.” Dipper picks up clothes from the ground, sniffs them, and deems them clean enough for the day. “There's plenty of room on the bed, buddy.”

Dipper glances at the cat over his shoulder. He's surprise at the fierce stare aimed at him. The feline almost looks ferocious, with its chin pointed up, its head held high, and its eyes almost piercing. The brunet almost fears the small animal. That is, until it starts to lick itself.

Dipper raises an eyebrow, looks up, and sighs.

“Okay, so maybe that was a bit mean.” Dipper scratches his head. “Sorry, alright?”

The cat gives him a bored look before glancing the other direction.

“Alright,” Dipper rolls his eyes and sighs. “Guess I'll save that apology for later. Whatever.”

Dipper slowly lifts his dirty shirt above his head and replaces the old night shirt with a red hoodie. He pulls off his pants and slips on a old pair of jeans in his hand. He looks around for a clean pair of white socks to cover his bare feet.

Once Dipper is finally done dressing, he looks over to the cat, who, weirdly enough, sits with his body facing the other way. Dipper raises an eyebrow, but doesn't comment on the cat's odd behavior, no its fidgeting tail.

“I'm uh...I'm done?” The cat's ear twitches before it turns back around and trots to where Dipper is. The cat doesn't meet Dipper's eyes, and Dipper doesn't try to find the reason for it.

“Oh right!” Dipper frowns. “I got to brush my teeth.”

The cat looks up, steps back, and shoots him a look of pure disgust.

                       …

“So, any plans for today?!” Mabel excitedly asked. Dipper sits across from her at the breakfast table. He eats his bowl of cereal and chews with each tap of his fingers against the wooden table. His glance wavers from his jumpy sister to the cat sitting near his foot, silently eating some can of tuna Mabel found in the cupboard moments before.

“Uh, well studying, books, the usual…” Mabel gives her brother a disapproving look. “What?”

“You need to go out more.” Dipper rolls his eyes. “For the past two weeks, all you've been doing is hiding in your room, or you only go outside to get weird types of food-.”

“Mabel,” Dipper frowns. “A bag of salt and vinegar chips is not weird.”

Mabel gasps. “It's not-Dipper, what you're eating is like...witchcraft!”

Dipper slaps his face with his hand. “Okay, you're point?”

“My point is,” Mabel leans over the table. Dipper stares at her fluffy brown hair, at her pink headband and matching sweater, and at her eyes with stars shining through them. “It's summer, Dipper. You're like, finally a teenager. Why not spend this summer doing something fun! Something crazy, and dangerous, and rememberable-?!”

“I am.” Dipper frowns.

Mabel raises an eyebrow, “Like what?”

“Like,” Dipper pushes his food aside and makes himself as small as possible. “Books have all that...in them..”

“Dipper?”

“Yes?”

“That doesn't count.”

“...darn…”

Dipper watches his sister takes a bite of whatever concoction she made and look straight at him with determination in her eyes and crumbs on her face.

“Why not join me, Candy, and Grenda today? We're going to play games and have girl talk! You should join! It might be fun!”

Dipper raises an eyebrow. “I appreciate the thought, but I'm not interested in games… nor the girl talk…”

“Dipper,” There's concern in Mabel’s eyes, and Dipper hates it. “You should have some fun, you know? You should make friends and have slumber parties and-.”

“Mabel,” Dipper pats his sisters shoulder and gets up from his seat with his bowl in hand, “It’s fine, I'm perfectly fine.”

Dipper throws out the remaining cereal, rinses out his bowl, and places it near the sink to dry. He walks past Mabel, past the cat, until he reaches the front door, where his hat and black and white converse rest.

“Where are you going, Dip Dot?” Mabel stands up with a frown. Dipper balances himself to slip on his shoes. He bends down and ties them with ease.

“I think I'm going to go to the mall.” Dipper watches his sister rub her arm. “There's some things I want to get.”

Mabel moves a step forward. “I'll go with you-.”

Dipper shakes his head. “Nah, have fun with your friends. I'll come by for a little later, okay?”

The twins hold eye contact for a beat, two, before Mabel looks the other way. She's not rubbing her arm anymore. She holding it, tightly, so tightly her skin turns a shade darker.

“Fine,” she sighs, “but if you need me, call me. I'm here, Dipper.”

Dipper rolls his eyes. He grabs his white cap with a blue pine tree imprinted in the middle and smiles.

“And you call me the worry wart. I'll be fine! I'm fine!” Dipper opens the front door, boyish grin still in place and falsehood on the tip of his tongue. “When have I ever lied to you?”

Dipper shuts the door, leaving Mabel and his lies behind.

                    …  
“You didn't have to come, you know?” Dipper looks at the cat walking next to him through the malls glass doors. “You could have stayed home or something.”

The cat stops in its tracks, turns its head, and gives Dipper a look that almost makes him feel stupid.

“I guess that was dumb to ask, then.” The cat moves ahead with its ear twitching and its tail swaying. Dipper refrains himself from rolling his eyes for the five thousandth time in the past two days and tells himself that his eyes may get stuck in the back of his head at this rate.

The cat in front of him scoffs.

Don't do it Dipper.

Dipper grits his teeth to refrain himself from rolling his eyes and sighing. He feels more old than he should feel. He clicks his tongue with the thought of blaming it on the cat, but the cat's the least of his troubles.

The feline spares a lazy eye Dipper’s way before trotting to the escalators and patiently waiting. Dipper raises an eyebrow at the cat, but shrugs it off. He steps on the escalator with his hands in his pocket. The cat follows behind and silently watches as they gain elevation. Dipper whistles his way up the levels. He didn't think going to the mall with a cat would be just as awkward as going to the mall with Mabel and her… friends…

 _‘It's just a cat, stupid,’_ Dipper reminds himself, but he can't shake off the feeling that he's completely and utterly wrong.

Dipper begrudgingly mutters his way off the escalator and into one of the first stores he sees. He roughly pushes the small shops doors open and looks around only to discover that he's never been inside before. The odd Erlenmeyer flasks spilling different colored puffs of smoke, the weird vine plants moving and curling around tables and chairs, and definitely the hand circling around his feet aren't things he's ever seen outside of the woods of Gravity Falls…

Wait...hand?

Dipper screams at the disembodied hand near his feet. He jumps up and down every time the hand inches near him. He almost cries until the cat hisses, scaring the living appendage away.

“Oh my...oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” He hears a snort from below him and almost raises his leg to punt the goddamn cat into one of the weird looking potions.

A sudden creak jolts Dipper into focus. He whips around and sees more knacks, more potions, more tables, more things crawling and alive. A large lump is stuck in Dipper’s throat. He gasps, breaths in, and swallows his nerves down.

“H-hello?” Dipper takes a few tentative steps forward. “I would guess since no one said anything about that embarrassing screech that no one's here, right?”

Dipper almost feels good about the absent responses before he hears another creak again. He shakily looks around again until he spots something large, powerful, on the front counter.

Dipper stares down at the thick old book. It's worn and antique, with scratches and tears on its front and sides. Dipper traces the red leather from top to bottom until he stops at the centre of the book. He gasps at a golden hand with number three in graved into the book’s cover. It looks hollow and lifeless, but as Dipper slowly levels his fingers to touch it, it feels alive.

His fingers tap the hand. The book flies open.

Dipper flinches away in surprise. He peeks down at the cat who's looking almost like it's sweating bullets. Dipper raises an eyebrow. He receives a nervous twitch of the tail in return.

“What could this be?” Dipper skims the open pages. Some of the words are faded, old age catching up quickly with the slim pages. The words he can make out are unique, exotic, written in curves and phrases in a completely different language from his own.

“Are you kidding me?” Dipper rolls his eyes. “To see who someone really is? To get gum out of your hair? These look like weird poems instead of anything remotely useful! What's such a stupid thing doing here?”

A meow and a soft touch jolts Dipper away from his reading. He looks down at the cat shoving him lightly with its tiny head. Dipper almost wants to voice how cute it looks, but the light shoves turn more violent, hurried, as if the cat is afraid of something.

“What is it, little guy?” Dipper reaches down and lifts up the cat eye level. It boggles Dipper’s mind how the cat's round eyes narrowed into slits.

A soft tap on his shoulders freezes and shakes Dipper's core into a frenzy. He turns his head in stuttering movements, like a machine with needed oil and tinkering. His eyes widened at the eerie, uncanny dark shadow floating in the air behind him. When he stares at the shadow’s outline, he almost thinks of it to be a witch with its big black hat and pointy shoes.

Dipper opens his mouth, shakily closes it shut, and stutters out a inhuman noise. He takes a step back and watches the shadowy figure grow bigger, taller, and look down at him with wrath.

 _“Give it back!”_ A womanly screech leaves its hollow mouth. _“Give it back, put it back, or I'll hurt you!’_  
  
Dipper gulps and tries to place the book back, but it's stuck to his left hand. He gasp and tries to rip, peel, bite it off. When it finally leaves his left hand, it sticks to his right.

 _“Give it back, put it back!”_ Dipper sweats as he tries to tear it off with his teeth again. _“Or I'll eat you!”_

“I-it won't come off!” Dipper screams. “Why won't it come off?!”

“ _Give it back! Put it back! Or I'll punish you!”_ Dipper grits his teeth, grips the book, and grabs his cat in time to avoid a slash from the large nails of the shadowy witch. Dipper watches in disbelief at the front desk, now cut in half.

“What was… that?” He looks up in fear at the witch, empty sockets for eyes and a empty snarl for a mouth. “What's going on?”

“ _Give it back, put it back. Or I'll…!”_

“Why do you want to hurt me-?!”  
  
The witch screeches, and Dipper doesn't waste any more time making a run for it. The glass doors begins to close. Dipper takes a deep breath, grips his cat tighter, and slides through the glass door’s mouth just before it permanently shuts. He lets out a breath, slow, hesitant, and walks a few steps away from the shop. He stops, pauses in his steps and throws another warily glance over his shoulder. His cat wiggles in his arms, preparing to jump and run.

“I think we're good, little kitty.” Dipper offers his cat a shy, unsure grin. “That was one heck of a shopping spree, wasn't it-?”

Dipper hears a sound coming from the closed doors. He notices the small crack appear in the middle of the glass grow bigger.

“Wait…” Dipper falters. “What?”

The glass shatters.

Before he has any time to react, the cat in his arms breaks free. The feline elegantly lands on all fours and rushes over to Dipper. It opens its mouth wider than a cannon, takes Dipper’s shoe laces in its mouth, and pulls. Dipper staggers, steps over the cat, and trips over his untied laces. He lands hard on his knees, shards of glass cutting his rough fingers. Small drops of blood leave his fingers and cover the shards in a velvet red.

Dipper snaps his head over to the cat and readies himself to give one of the most profound speeches of the year when he spots a large shard of glass piece the ground where he once was.

“Did you,” Dipper wants to smack himself for asking it, but he knows he must ask it. “Did you just...save me?”

The cat shrugs and licks its paws.

Dipper almost gave into the inclination of wanting to hug the cat senseless, but a familiar screech bleeds through his soaked hands and ears.

 _“Give it back! Put it back!”_ A dark, black hand reaches through the shop. Dipper tells himself not to piss his pants because the cat's mocking stare is worse than the shadow witch’s death threats.

“I can't put it back!” Dipper yells. He lifts himself from the ground, well aware of the glass entering deeper into his skin. “If I can't put it back then…”

“ **I’ll kill you!”** The witch suddenly burst through the shop, it's angry, hollow eyes and mouth leaving scars in Dipper's mind and memory. Dipper shakily backs away step by step until his back is against a railing. He looks behind him and stares at the levels below him, staring up at him, wanting to take him away. Dippers eyes wander from the shadow witch, only heart beats away from ripping him to shreds, and the lower levels, the height and gravity ready to squash him like a bug.

“Damn it Dipper, decide…” The more the witch comes close to his shaking form, the more Dipper’s grip on the railing tightens. “Either die the cool way or the less cool way.”

As soon as the witch hisses and lunges at him with its sharp claws, Dipper already knows what to do.

“Fuck this,” Dipper swings his legs over the railing. “I'm not cool anyway.”

He jumps.

Dipper can't remember how the air felt, or how the heavens laughed at him for his uncool choice of death. He doesn't remember the rise of fear plundering in his gut and swimming in his blood. However, Dipper remembers a voice. It was squeaky, a bit high, and a bit familiar, too familiar .

“I swear, it's always the smart ones that make the most dimmest, dumbest last minute decisions.” Dipper frowns.

“What do you mean by that? That's rude! I had no choice-wait a minute! Who said that?” Dipper tosses his head left and right, but sees no one but the dingy cat on his shoulder, licking its paws and wagging its tail.

“Who do you think?” The cat huffs. “I'm the only one here, aren't I?”

Dipper blinks and opens his mouth to scream.

“Don't do it,” the cat hisses, “I'm right near your stinky mouth.

Dipper lifts his hands to smell his breath, but he looks down at the incoming ground and does a double take. “W-how?! Y-you-and your-and-and-whaaaaaat?” The cat flicks its tongue.

“Meows not the time to be asking stupid questions, those can wait.” The cat jumps off his shoulder. “I believe before anything else, I got a ignorant human to save.”

“Who are you calling ignorant, you?!” The cat grins.

“You, kid.” Dippers eyes widen. The cat opens its mouth wide and says a few words, something that sounds foreign and exotic to Dipper’s ears. A sapphire colored magical seal appears inches above the ground.

“We’re gonna die!” Dipper screams. He grabs his cat for supports and cries. “We’re going to die-wait…”

“-kid?!” Dipper springs up from his bed and gasp. He closes his wide eyes and gulps down whatever air he can seep into his lungs. It takes a moment for Dipper to calm down and put himself back together. He slowly, briefly examined the room with his chestnut eyes. When Dipper doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, he sighs in relief.

“Whew!” Dipper nervously laughs and wipes his forehead of nonexistent sweat. “It was just a dream-whatatata is that?!” Dipper stares at his bed sheets in horror. There, resting next to his other hand, is a familiar book with a hand and number three on the cover. Dipper gasp and moves until his back hits the walk on the other side of the room. He shakily points a finger at the book, but pauses short after. He turns his arm to examine the blue marks covering and lighting up his arm brighter than the eyes now focused on him.

“What is this?” Dipper glances from the book to his hand. “What's going on?! What's happening?! That crappy book was in my dream, but these weird tattoos-where the hell did they even come from?!”

“It wasn't a dream.” Dipper freezes halfway through his not so inner monologue to roam his eyes for any sign of life that could have said that until his eyes focus on the cat a few feet away from him, sitting on his dirty floor and licking its paws.

“Oh please tell me I'm dreaming and that a cat did not just talk to me.”

“I did, so get over it.” Dipper grips his arm and groans. “And that really wasn't a dream. You almost killed yourself, so I swooped in and saved your sorry ass. I got you home safe, too. Oh, and when we hit home, you almost got yourself killed again, and I saved your ass for the second time today! So, you should be thanking me and those marks! Not insulting them!”

“Woah, woah, woah, your making no sense! Actually, none of this makes sense! How was that not a dream? Excuse you, but your the size of a...well cat, how could you get me home safe?! And-and what do you mean by saving me again?!”

“I mean-.” The cat’s tail twitches. “How about one step at a time? Let's worry about the marks and all that next episode, shall we? Let's worry about that book for now. If what you just witness wasn't a dream, then how is that book on your bed, huh?” Dipper slowly opens his mouth and quickly shuts it. “Answer me, kid!”

“I don't know!” Dipper said. “It's just there! Like how would I know! This is insane! How can a cat talk? How can something just appear from my dream-?”

“Not a dream, kid.”

“And how can-how can this all even be possible?!”

“It's Gravity falls, kid.” The cat walks in a circle, “is anything impossible here?”

Dipper nods his head. “Right. Since all that is explained, can you tell me what that book is and why you’re talking to me and not like Mabel, or one of your cat friends...or Mabel.”

“Well,” the cat starts. “That book you so rudely speak of is Book3, one of the most dangerous books created by the greatest author himself.”

Dipper blinks. “Okay…?”

The cat huffs and rolls its eye. “It also represents your now active participation in the Mage War.”

“War?” Dipper snickers. “I'm not fighting in any war. Why would I be fighting any…”

“Mage?”

“Mage wars?” Dipper folds his arms, but his right arm covered in blue symbols suddenly begins to ache. He settles for placing his arms at his sides instead.

“Weirdmageddon, or the day of the end.”

Dipper frowns. “End? What do you mean by end-wait,” he nervous laughs, “you don't mean like end of the world or something like that, right?”

The cat now perched on his hind legs nods.

“That's not possible.” Dipper shakes his head. “That can't be true! How do you even know that's a real thing? How do you know that something like that exist?”

“Because,” the cat tilts his head to look up at Dipper. It's narrowed eyes, full of somber vexation, scares Dipper into oblivion. “I'm the one who started it, and I need you to end it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I am soo sorry this chapter update was late! With school, sports, etc...it’s been busy aha let me tell you! 
> 
> I am pretty much done with rewriting the story, so from chapter 4 onward will begin as something new, a new beginning we shall say! I hope enjoyed the story so far and are excited for what’s yet to come!
> 
> I can’t wait to walk this journey with you! 
> 
> Bookmarks, comments, and kudos. 
> 
> Thank ya! Love ya forever!


End file.
